Hillshire Brands Company

New:  Corporate identity

Launched:  June 5, 2012 (effective July 3, when NYSE posts shares)

Story in brief:
History repeats  itself.  In 1985, when I was a new associate at Anspach Grossman Portugal, our client Consolidated Foods was struggling with its bland, forgettable corporate name, and chose instead to be represented by just one of its consumer-brand names. To clearly separate the corporate identity from the brand, Gene Grossman designed a reserved, all-caps SARA LEE CORPORATION wordmark, in effect abstracting the baked-goods brand to a higher level; its new message, "We manage fine brands." I thought this was brilliant. (Some years later, the Corporation reverted to the Sara Lee mark shown here, closer to its Sara Lee Kitchens brandmark.)

In 2012, as Sara Lee Corporation prepares to spin out its European coffee-and-tea businesses (as "D.E. Master Blenders 1753" -- very complicated), it has concluded that "Sara Lee" no longer provides an umbrella identity appropriate to its remaining portfolio of predominately meat-product brands. So once again it has reached into that portfolio, selecting Hillshire Farms for abstraction to a higher level as Hillshire Brands.

Essentially, that abstraction was the design brief assigned to Duffy & Partners (a trusted brand design resource) just a few weeks ago.  Joe Duffy shares with us these presentation points:

"With Hillshire taken on as the corporate name, our collective goal was to insure that the integrity of the product brand was represented, while leveraging the profound quality of the Hillshire name.

"That said, this new symbol taps into the familiar Hillshire visual equities while elevating the overall aesthetic so that it can be a beacon for all your brands.

"The modern sensibility communicates your innovation, that it's a new day, it delivers the pride and humility that is at the that heart of your company and the Hillshire name.

"The oval is inclusive, represents continuity, mission and quality. It's your seal of approval.

"The colors are reflective of your brands coming from the earth and the sun fueling growth.

"The overall aesthetic balances your unique heritage/your own-able story with the innovation and forward thinking of the new organization."

Credits:
C.E.O. - Sean Connolly (after spinout)
Identity design - Duffy & Partners; Joe Duffy, Creative Director

First Impressions:
Strategy:  The upside of this strategy is that great brands, doubling as CI, can add a significant multiplier to corporate valuation. The downside is that their greatness is not always sustainable. Apparently that's what happened to Sara Lee (now an institutional memory, licensed to other makers.) So this is a gamble, a bet on sustainable enhancement of the Hillshire Farms reputation.
Design:  There is a sufficient difference between these corporate and category brand expressions, compared side by side, but barely. One could too easily stand in for the other.  Perhaps BRANDS gets too easily lost here, an expendable afterthought (and clutter), when (to seat a new corporate presence) the more desirable communication may be the whole of HILLSHIRE BRANDS (akin to Sara Lee Corporation, in 1985).

Corporate Brand Matrix ratings:  
50% structural,  50% strategic,  0% functional (est.)